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Friday, October 26, 2012

As empathy dies and narcissism thrives, will culture survive?

I know it's shocking and unexpected, but the evidence—both data-driven and anecdotal—indicates that people increasingly care less about others and more about themselves.

In fact, in a survey that has so far tested 14,000 volunteers, Sara
Konrath and her team at the University of Michigan's Institute for
Social Research has found that college students' self-reported empathy
levels (as measured by the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, a
standardized questionnaire containing such items as "I often have
tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me" and "I try
to look at everybody's side of a disagreement before I make a
decision") have been in steady decline over the past three decades—since
the inauguration of the scale, in fact, back in 1979. A particularly
pronounced slump has been observed over the past 10 years. "College kids
today are about 40 percent lower in empathy than their counterparts of
20 or 30 years ago," Konrath reports.

More worrisome still, according to Jean Twenge, a professor of
psychology at San Diego State University, is that, during this same
period, students' self-reported narcissism levels have shot through the
roof. "Many people see the current group of college students, sometimes
called 'Generation Me,' " Konrath continues, "as one of the most
self-centered, narcissistic, competitive, confident, and individualistic
in recent history."

That is from Kevin Dutton's article, "Psychopathy's Double Edge" (ht: C.F.), published in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Dutton writes, "Precisely why this downturn in social values has come about is not
entirely clear. A complex concatenation of environment, role models, and
education is, as usual, under suspicion." He then goes on to point to new studies of the brain, neural pathways, and such. Interesting. And I'm quite sympathetic to the argument that new technologies, the drop in literacy levels, and social upheaval are major factors in the demise of empathy and the steady growth of "self-centered, narcissistic, competitive, confident, and individualistic" attitudes and behaviors.

Comments

And I thought my generation had already drowned a while ago. For simple minds like myself Cardinal Pie makes it simple:

Cardinal Pie (1815-1880)

The wise man of Idumea said: “The life of man on earth is a combat” (Job 7:1), and this truth is no less applicable to societies than to individuals. Being composed of two essentially distinct substances, every son of Adam carries within him, like Isaac’s wife, two men who contradict and fight one another (Genesis 25:22). These two men, or, if you prefer, these two natures have contrary tendencies and inclinations. Drawn by the law of the senses, the earthly man is in a perpetual uprising against the heavenly man, who is ruled by the law of the spirit (Galatians 5:17). This is a deep-seated antagonism, which could end here below only by the shameful defection of the spirit, surrendering its arms to the flesh and placing itself at the latter’s discretion...Let us say it, therefore, my Brethren: man’s life on earth, the life of virtue, the life of duty, is the noble coalition, the holy crusade of all the faculties of our soul, supported by the aid of grace, its ally, against all the united forces of the flesh, the world and hell: Militia est vita hominis super terram.